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Protesters gather in Helsinki to object cut in int'l aid

Xinhua, September 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Crowds of people gathered in downtown Helsinki on Tuesday to protest against the government's plan to slash international development cooperation spending.

Finnish national broadcaster Yle estimated that there were about 1,000 protesters taking part.

The cut in international development spending will affect hundreds of thousands of people's lives in developing countries, said Niina Maki, one of the organizers from the Service Center for Development Cooperation of Finland.

The organizers of the protest said they were ashamed of the government's "shortsighted and selfish" policy.

Some non-governmental organizations in Finland will hand over a petition with more than 41,000 signatures to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development on Tuesday.

In the middle of August, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in its 2016 budget proposal that Finland is expected to cut international development cooperation spending by approximately 200 million euros (224 million U.S. dollars) in 2016.

The Finnish government will start to discuss the state budget on Wednesday. Endit